SCIE press release

SCIE statement on the Care Quality Commission Market Report

This report marks an important stage in our understanding of the state of health and social care in England. The report highlights specific areas of poor performance that will need to be addressed, particularly in relation to management of medicines, record keeping and staffing. That must be a priority but we should not forget that the vast majority of services are already meeting the essential standards of quality and safety. We need to ensure that these services are sustained and can improve too.

SCIE has a range of resources that can help services tackle some of the problems highlighted. For example, one of the safeguarding challenges in care homes we have identified is maladministration of medication. Our report published earlier this year includes a prevention checklist that can be used to avoid such problems arising. Better integration across health and social care can lead to a much better experience for people whose care is often provided in these different settings. While much of our work is developed for social care it can be just as useful for staff in the health service